Poet, fiction writer, and critic Anis Shivani was educated at Harvard University and currently lives in Houston. He is the author of the poetry collections My Tranquil War and Other Poems (2012), Whatever Speaks on Behalf of Hashish: Poems (2015), and Soraya: Sonnets (2016). He is the author of the books of criticism Against the Workshop: Provocations, Polemics, Controversies (2011) and the forthcoming Literature at the Global Crossroads. Shivani’s works of fiction include the short story collections Anatolia and Other Stories (2009) and The Fifth Lash (2012), both of which were longlisted for the Frank O’Connor international short story award, and the novels Karachi Raj (2015) and A History of the Cat in Nine Chapters or Less (2016). 

Shivani’s criticism has been published widely, and he is a regular blogger for the Huffington Post. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and has been a member of the National Book Critics Circle and directs Monsoon Art Space in Houston.